Seventh International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education

Strand I: Pedagogy & Assessment

English

Elementary (K-5)
Middle School/Junior High
High School

It is clear that multilingualism is the single most powerful lever for developing students’ intercultural and global competencies, and helping them develop the mental flexibility necessary for success in a rapidly changing world. Teaching both language and culture in deep and reflective ways, through an engaging, inquiry-based approach, with explicit comparisons between the target language and English, is the best way to ensure that learning language is not simply a matter of acquiring vocabulary and grammar, but rather a constructive and iterative process of pattern recognition, meaning making, and learning to see the world through different lenses and conceptualize problems with different approaches and perspectives. Add to this a rich consideration of the cultural knowledge necessary to communicate effectively with native speakers and you have a recipe for an effective and engaging language immersion program.

Please join Chris Livaccari, author most recently of New Ways of Seeing: How Multilingualism Opens Our Eyes and Trains Our Minds for a Complex World, for a lively discussion of how to build a language immersion program that enables students to develop a deep understanding of the ways that language and culture work, interact, and intersect. We will discuss strategies for building students’ cultural literacy, utilizing linguistics in the immersion classroom, and working toward the development of intercultural competency.